Sunday, 31 July 2011

A few weeks back I did my first hen party craft workshop, I've done lots of craft workshops before, but never a hen party workshop. As with all my workshops, I used Jam jar Beads' upstairs studio, which is a great light space for workshops. The ladies had come from all over the country to Sheffield for the the hen do. I had a lovely time teaching them how to make feathery fascinators and beautiful button-bejeweled brooches while the ladies got to snack on Fancie cupcakes and a spread of sandwiches and dips too (and of course the obligatory teas and coffees) to fuel their creativity. It was a hive of activity and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and went away with some super accessories to be proud of. If I get any photos from the ladies showing off their lovely wares, I will be sure to show you.

Wednesday, 27 July 2011

My husband designed all our invites/menu/order of service etc for our wedding, including the tea towels we had printed as invites. The idea for doing the invite as a tea towel came because we wanted something a bit tongue in cheek. Chris saw a lot of the tacky memorabilia that was bought out to celebrate the wedding of Prince WIlliam and Kate. We came across old tea towel designs from previous royal weddings and decided to do our own which Chris designed and then got digitally printed.

We had a rough colour scheme of yellow/white/grey and pink which we used in the printed materials. The little bird pegs I made by cutting out bird images from an old bird book and gluing them onto wooden pegs. I made lots of them for the wedding so guests could pin up their messages and pictures to us at the reception (we had a table with an old fashioned typewriter and an easel with pens and paints for people to type, write or draw messages for us.

Friday, 15 July 2011

Its been a loooonnnnng time since my last post. I have been busy in the last months since my last posts....My TV show aired, I found out I was pregnant (BIG surprise!!) and I tied the knot with my wonderful (and often long-suffering) husband who I has stuck by me for over 8 years (and now hopefully many, many more!!) in a lovely ceremony and reception in the Peak District!

Our wedding day was a great sunny day surrounded by family and friends. We found a great barn last summer that fitted the bill, down a tiny leafy country lane in the glorious Peak District countryside.

We decided to go down the route of a DIY wedding as it fitted the venue, fitted us as a couple and also meant we could have the wedding we wanted.

Because of our decision to have a DIY wedding, we had to call on help from our friends and family ALOT. They did SO much to help us over the days leading up to the wedding and the day after's enormous clear-up (that is one of the downsides of DIY weddings-all the setting up and taking down!).

My mother-in-law (aka Queen of Cakes) made not only the wedding cake but wedding favours, and tonnes of other sweet treats. She literally makes the best cakes EVER!.

My brother was photographer for the day, my sister-in-law was cinematographer (on the cool old Super8 camera!)they also helped out with a last minute snack food to have at the beginning of the reception (mini PB&J sandwiches wrapped in little parcels and sweet and spicy popcorn) and my Mum and Auntie did the church flowers.

So we had palmed off quite a few jobs but we still had a lot to do ourselves! Chris designed the invites, order of service, menus, stickers etc. I made my wedding dress (which became a bit more difficult once I knew I was pregnant!) and accessories. I made our wedding favour seed packets, the place cards, the popcorn cones, the boutonnieres, badges, cutlery ties, curtains, cushions, wooden signs, and sourced everything for the wedding. (It started off being a lot of fun, but when morning sickness decided to rear its ugly head for a straight 8 weeks before the wedding, things started to feel a bit like hard work!)

Me and my fab bridesmaid, Amy, did all the flowers at the venue too on the morning of the wedding, which I thought looked pretty good in the end as we were going for country wildflower sort of look, it didnt need to be neat (which was a good job, as we were just chucking them into the jam jars towards the end!).

Getting hitched probably never goes without a hitch and we had a few hiccups: One involved me buying fitted sheets instead of flat sheets (which we were using as tablecloths). Needless to say fitted sheets did NOT look the business and my so brother dashed off to Sheffield on a flat sheet emergency mission! I also over-ordered the flowers (I was panicking so much about under-ordering that I went a bit berserk at the flower wholesalers). Likewise, Chris was a bit keen in ordering the alcohol and went well and truly overboard on that one!! But the sun shone on the day and there were no big problems.

The day was just as I had always dreamed (with the exception of not being able to drink due to bump of course!) and I had my wonderful new husband by my side and we were surrounded by the best group of family and friends and all the hard work was definitely worth all the hard work but I definitely don't plan on doing it again (he he!!!!)